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Thursday, April 21, 2005 Between 1991 and 1998 Lucinda Devlin photographed in penitentiaries in twenty states, with the permission and cooperation of the local authorities. She called the resulting series The Omega Suites, alluding to the final letter of the Greek alphabet as a metaphor for the finality of execution. The series includes thirty chilling color photographs of execution chambers and associated spaces, such as holding cells and viewing rooms. With over 3000 inmates on death row and 70 percent of US citizens supporting the death penalty, The Omega Suites brings focus to one of the great ethical questions facing contemporary Americans, about which public opinion continues to be passionate. Working with a Hasselblad camera and long exposures in existing light, Devlin created surprisingly beautiful images. Viewers are often drawn by this beauty and then repelled by the reality of the subject. Devlin expresses an interest in "let[ting] the environments themselves communicate directly with viewers," and the carefully composed and clinically sterile images are, indeed, as objective as our preconceptions allow. Throughout her work, Devlin examines how architectural spaces express the values of the culture that creates and uses them. Her other subjects include: Corporeal Arenas --operating rooms, mortuaries, autopsy rooms; Pleasure Grounds--discos, tanning salons, peep shows, and fantasy hotel rooms; and Water Rites--German spa facilities. Lucinda Devlin's work has been shown extensively in Europe and the United States, including international venues such as the 49th Venice Biennale (2001) and the 25th Biennale de Sao Paulo (2002). She is the recipient of numerous awards including fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Aaron Siskind Foundation, and an Artist's in Residency at the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst, Berlin. Born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 1947, Devlin lives and works in Indianapolis, Indiana.
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